18th August 2010

End Domestic Flights Now! Saturday 4th September Demonstration latest and report from public meeting

National Agrofuels Demo Saturday 25th September– plus the latest from Bristol and upcoming public meeting

‘Zero Carbon by 2030 – Action for the Climate Emergency’, Saturday 30th October

National Climate March 2010, Saturday 4th December

6km Swimming Challenge for CCC

Not just predictions – How climate change is affecting the world around us, now!

Is dirty coal making a comeback in the UK? – take action online on this and other issues

Climate change in the news, including the latest on the UN talks

Upcoming events

End Domestic Flights Now! – Demonstrations in London and Manchester, Saturday 4th September

After the victories at Heathrow and elsewhere take the agenda forward on aviation! Join the Campaign against Climate Change, Fight the Flights and SEMA (Stop Expansion at Manchester Airport) for demos at London’s City Airport and Manchester Airport calling for an end to domestic flights and airport expansion.

Demonstration outside London City Airport at 11.00 am followed by a demo at Manchester Airport at 4.30pm. You can go to both (join our special carriage on the train for £5 – book here) or alternatively just turn up to the demonstration nearest you. Full timetable and further details here enddomesticflights

Why we should end domestic flights - meeting report

Our public meeting titled “Why we should end domestic flights: aviation in the era of climate emergency" was a thought-provoking evening. Why should we focus on domestic flights, when each long-haul flight is so much more damaging? One reason is that with new runways in Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted blocked, UK aviation expansion will be focused on the many regional airports around the country, which largely provide domestic flights.

As Phil Thornhill and John Stewart explained, the fight against aviation expansion will be much harder if it is split up between all these local communities, rather than united under a single banner. London City Airport, the target of September’s demonstration, has almost entirely domestic flights, with the exception of one flight to New York (a jet with just 32 seats).

Social justice was also a strong theme of the evening. Alan Haughton from Fight the Flights (pictured) explained how flights from London City blight the lives of some of Britain’s poorest communities. He also brought up the issue of government subsidies. In addition to the well-known tax breaks for aviation, London City Airport gets a special bonus – although the airport is privately owned, the taxpayer pays up to £5.5 million a year for its security staffing.

National Agrofuels Demo – Portland, Dorset
Saturday 25th September

Time to really put this issue on the map! The CCC are joining forces with Biofuelwatch, Food not Fuel and NOPE (No Palm Oil Energy) to create a National Day of Action on Agrofuels. We will be protesting at the site of W4B’s proposed new agrofuel burning power station at Portland in Dorset, with a march followed by a rally and rounding off with an evening of workshops and entertainment.

Coach transport from London and possibly other places are currently being finalised, if you’re interested then e-mail endagrofuels@campaigncc.org or fill in the online form at agrofuelsdemo2010 and we’ll get back to you as soon as tickets are available.

Agrofuels Public Meeting and London Demo at DECC, Wednesday 15th September.

There will be an action demanding an end to subsides for agrofuels outside DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change), 5.00-6.30 pm followed by a Public Meeting at 7.00pm: “Agrofuels: how we can stop this false solution undermining the fight against climate change”. Andrew Butler will be coming up from Portland to tell us about the local NOPE (“No Palm Oil Energy”) campaign. Plus other speakers on the wider issues and strategy for success... More details in future e-mails.

Agrofuels – news from Bristol planning appeal

On Tuesday 10th August, Bristol City Council began hearing a planning inquiry over W4B’s plans to build a palm-oil fired power station in Avonmouth. Originally it was rejected on the grounds that the proposed fuel was unsustainable, but now the planning inspector has decided that the sustainability (or lack of) of the fuel is not relevant to the inquiry, rendering environmentalists’ arguments useless. Read the full account (plus see photos from the demo) here:

Zero Carbon by 2030. We need to reach this goal and we can reach this goal. But to get there we will need a radical programme of climate action for the UK – a positive vision with real solutions. Join us in challenging the new government to take the kind of action we really need to address the Climate Emergency.

The year’s biggest climate change demonstration takes place on Saturday 4th December, as part of a Global Day of Action with demonstrations around the world (see www.globalclimatecampaign.org). Put the date in your diary now and keep an eye on your inbox for more information nearer the time.

Tadhg White’s 6km swim to the Isle of Wight

Placing his body on the line - Tadhg White will be swimming to raise at £1,000 for the Campaign against Climate Change on September 9th! Six kilometers from Gosport to the Isle of Wight - hopefully in under two hours. He and two friends are raising money for their respective charitable organisations - be sure to support his challenge (and ours) by donating via:

Tadhg has written the following piece outlining how recent disasters around the world highlight the urgent need to tackle climate change.

How climate change is affecting the world around us, now!

There’s been lots in the news on the effect climate change is having on the world around us. We thought we’d bring just a few examples of these together to highlight the need for urgent action to prevent climate change so future generations can enjoy the resources of the planet as we do today.

A recent report by The Census of Marine Life, a 10 year study to attempt to chart the full diversity of marine life by over 360 scientists around the world, has found that human activity is having a damaging effect on the health of the ocean life. The report found that poor management of fisheries, over-harvesting, pollution and the increased threat of climate change have in most regions around the world led to fish, crustaceans and crab stocks to be 5-10% of what they once were. One study recently published has found a long-term decline in phytoplankton of 40% which may be linked to warming waters (see news section below). As the base of the entire ocean food chain, this is deeply worrying. Acidification because of increased atmospheric CO2 can also disrupt vital microscopic organisms, while ocean warming can reduce nutrient availability in the oceans as warmer layers at the top mix less with lower layers.

Other recent UK centric reports produced by DEFRA and the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnerships released this year, have shown UK sea levels are rising and surface temperatures are increasing as a result of climate change. The surface temperature of UK waters has risen by .5 to 1C since 1870 meaning cold water fish such as cod are in becoming sparse and the numbers of warm water fish like red mullet and seabass are on the increase. We need to get control over the human impact on climate change or face the possibility of mass extinction across the oceans.

WWF Russia has claimed climate change and hot weather are the causes of rampant fire around Moscow. Abnormal weather patterns that occur around the tropical Pacific Ocean and effect the rest of the World have lead to very hot weather in western Russia but cooler than average weather in neighbouring Siberia. Jeff Knight, a climate scientist with the UK Met office partly attributed the fires to the effect of increased greenhouse gas concentrations, while Alexei Kohorn head of climate and energy programme at WWF said of the increased likelihood of similar fires in years to come “This tendency wont stop in the coming 40 years or so, until the greenhouse gas emissions are reduced”

The torrential rains in Pakistan have been caused by the same abnormal weather patterns causing the fires in Moscow. The UN has called the floods in Pakistan the greatest humanitarian crisis in recent history with nearly 14million people affected, 1600 dead, millions with homes destroyed or damaged and without adequate food or water. Recent flooding in China has killed more than 1,100 people this year and caused billions of dollars in damage across 28 provinces and regions. Dr Peter Scott, a climate scientist with the UK Met Office explains that there is “clear evidence” of an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events because of climate change. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, VP of IPCC has said of the abnormal weather patterns “These are events which reproduce and intensify in a climate disturbed by greenhouse gas pollution”. Professor Andrew Watson, a climatologist of University of East Anglia believes these events are “fairly consistent with the IPCC reports and what 99 per cent of the scientists believe to be happening”.

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition is organising a mass lobby of MPs on climate change on 5th and 6th November. Everyone is welcome to join, and they are looking for people to sign up as coordinators in every constituency www.stopclimatechaos.org/the-big-connection